The Concert and LaBella from Palazzo Pitti, Flora from the Uffizi, the GozziAltarpiece from Ancona, Danae from Capodimonte, Emperor Charles V with a Dog and the Self Portrait from the Prado, The Flaying of Marsyas from Kroměříž… the list continues of the greatest masterpieces by Titian that will be on display at the Scuderie del Quirinale from March 5th to June 16th 2013.

This exhibition has been conceived as an ideal conclusion to the project of offering the public a new take on Venetian painting and a chance to reflect on the cardinal role it has played in the renewal of both Italian and European culture. Through a series of exhibitions over the past few years, the Scuderie del Quirinale has analysed the work of artists who have been crucial in forging modern painting, from Antonello da Messina to Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto and Tintoretto – culminating in Titian who stands as the highest expression of European art as a whole.

With over forty works on display, the halls of the Scuderie will offer a comprehensive picture of the headlong rise to mastery of the Pieve di Cadore-born painter, from his early days as an apprentice in the workshops of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione in Venice to his full independence through the commissions of large-scale canvases for the doges, the Este and the Della Rovere families, up to the imperial state portraits of Charles V and his son Philip II. Titian’s long career will be illustrated decade by decade through his finest production, highlighting his masterful sense of colour and the evolution of his brushstroke capable of transcending the very idea of painting at the time. Through a series of pertinent comparisons between works – one of the most emblematic of which is certainly that of the Crucifixion in the church of the Dominicans in Ancona, the Crucifix of the Escorial in Madrid and the fragment of the Crucifixion from the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna – the public will be able to personally grasp Titian’s innovativeness in terms of layout and composition, in a selection of works that will document both his crucial role as a painter of religious subjects as well as his complex activity as a portrait painter of the nobility. Thanks to the support and loans from some of the greatest museums in Italy and abroad, this exhibition aims to offer the public a chance to understand how Titian, in the words of his contemporary chronicler and great admirer Ludovico Dolce, combined “the formidable greatness of Michelangelo, the pleasurable beauty of Raphael and the true colours of Nature”.

The works on display will be accompanied by the results of a major project of scientific analysis that has covered most of Titian’s output. Carried out by the Centro di Ateneo di Arti Visive of the University of Bergamo, the project has produced remarkable results in terms of identifying which works were painted exclusively by Titian himself and which sections were completed by his workshop, enabling us to document his evolution with precision right from his early years as an apprentice.

The scientific catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale contains contributions by some of the most renowned experts on the great Venetian master.